When you consume a new piece of media and you just KNOW this one character is autistic but you can’t find anyone else talking about it online and you start to feel insane

When I was younger and researching the autism diagnosis criteria and symptoms, I thought “oh I couldn’t POSSIBLY be autistic.” Because when I read “takes everything literally” I thought it literally meant EVERYTHING and I was like “I don’t take EVERYTHING literally, just most things!” And I just realized the other day that it didn’t actually mean EVERYTHING and that was an overstatement.

Autism and Touch

The Autistic Teacher

i want to be cool and mysterious but im a chronic oversharer

This Horse Is Autistic (autrixtic?) And Nopony Can Convince Me Otherwise

Guys… I fear I was just metaphorically curb stomped

I had the absolute displeasure of taking the brand new digital SAT with 1 and a half time. They make you sit until the end of your allotted time for each section with nothing to entertain yourself and it’s hell. I was stuck in the testing room for 6 hours. I did appreciate the extra time for the math part, but for everything else it was unnecessary for me.

I swear all of us in there bonded over it being horrible. I really don’t get why they don’t design it so you can’t just move on to the next part when you’re done. It would have saved me literal hours and some of my sanity because I started writing fan fiction in the annotation feature and carving my pencil with a thumbtack I found on the floor to pass the time. Such a simple design change and it’s all fixed. There are plenty of other standardized tests test let you go at your own pace, even if I hard time limit has to be set at least let people move on early.

Because it was honestly incredibly unpleasant and I’m not even sure if it was worth it. But hey they gave us pizza afterwards though

I keep getting told off for climbing things and it’s really frustrating to me. I like to climb, I feel safer in a higher up spot, and it brings me a lot of joy. It’s not something I often get to do, though.

And I know it’s not standard to scale anything you see. I know it’s going to draw attention. Which sucks, because I just want to do my own thing and get a cool view. But people take notice. They gawk. Part of it is genuine concern for my safety, which is fair enough. I’m careful, and I don’t think theres that much to worry about, but of course people might not know this immediately.

Still though, it’s not like I’m hurting anyone. And I suspect it’s more about the social deviation than potential physical risks anyway. Because people react extremely similarly to other behavior that has 0 physical risk. People are uncomfortable seeing someone behave in a way they aren’t used to, and naturally default to trying to coax me down. This past week I had climbed up to the windowsill outside of our school when our class went outside, and my teacher, who had yelled at me to get down and rushed over to the scene, said something that made me think- he said “I’m not worried about your physical safety, but you can’t be in the windows. If people see you through the windows they’re going to think you’re a threat- they’re going to lock down the school thinking there’s a shooter”

(Now I really doubt they would think I’m a shooter for?? Climbing?? But let’s take his words at face value here) And that made me think- what about a teenager climbing onto the windowsill is threatening any way? What real reason would you have to associate that with violence except for abnormality?

Because of course anything abnormal is feared. Even if there’s no rational reason for it. And that pisses me off so badly- because why do I have to stop doing something that harms absolutely no one and makes me happy? There is nothing I respect less than rules simply for the sake of rules.

Me when I hear about some sort of horrific maritime accident or train derailment

I recently finally got a weighted blanket and I have mixed feelings. On one hand I love being compressed and it’s generally a pleasant sensation to lie down flat with it over me. I could even do with it crushing me a little more. On the other hand this thing is heavy, and hauling it around is probably single-handedly going to get me jacked. It’s too heavy for me to go tent mode in it and pull it over my head. If I try to do something with my arm half under the blanket and half not I get bogged down. None of that is really all that surprising I suppose, but it is starting to drive me insane every time I have to move the blanket. Also I had to put a cover on it… impossible needed my mothers help

Hey snake! I just got here and I just wanted to say I love your art style and posts, they are relatable and your style is very expressive

Thanks for being here!

Yooo thank you!! That means a lot :)

Me: *to my therapist* I had the spoons, so I did heaps of stuff and now I'm so exhausted I feel sick.

My Therapist: This is where you got to treat spoons like cash. Just because you have them, you need to figure out if you have enough to spend, or else you're going to be in debt. Remember, you're autistic, so you regain those spoons slowly and use them quickly. Everything, good and bad, uses that cash for you. You may enjoy the activity but it's going to exhaust you just as much as a bad activity if you're not careful.

Me: Goddamnit....

Whenever I manage to make small talk with a NT person and feel like I didn’t come off looking completely foolish I get this burst of euphoria. It’s like- I just socialized normally. I was a regular person for this brief slice of time. It feels like a win- never mind that you can’t ‘win’ conversations.

But this happiness is inevitably followed by dissatisfaction. Because if I really was good at coming off NT in conversation, I wouldn’t think about it so much. It would be natural to me to leave a chat without feeling like I said too much or too little. The very fact that I get this rush from such a mundane thing is part of the problem. And then I chide myself, because that’s a shitty way to look at it. Why is it so important to me to appear ‘typical’ anyway? Why does it matter if I ‘won’ a meaningless interaction with a person who has no impact on my life. I shouldn’t get a rush at all because it shows my confinement to expectations I theoretically don’t want to live up to.

Still, though. It feels nice, in the moment.

Pros of hyperfixiation:

Happy!

Art ideas

Life is good

Cons of hyperfixiation:

I am going to blow up

All my art is of the same guy

If I don't think about this 24/7 I get violent

Me when unmask around my ND friends but then feel intense shame for having unmasked when I’m alone

i honestly forget that autism mums say 'autism won today' to mean like their kid had a meltdown and that they are ableist. like nooo autism win means something like i found something cool out about my special interest or i managed to avoid a meltdown or i got to infodump!!!!! autism win is good!!!!!!

"All autistics have low empathy" - This statement is wrong.

"Autistics having low empathy is a MYTH, we actually have HIGH empathy!" - This statement is ALSO wrong.

Autistics can have low empathy, they can have high empathy, they can have learned empathy. The myth would be that all autistics only experience one end of the empathy spectrum.

In spreading around misinformation that autistics actually have high empathy, you are disregarding the autistics who do have low empathy. And vice versa.